Mechanics
Uncivil War is a card game for 2 players. It's based on the classic card game, War, but knowledge of classic War is not required. Each player brings a deck of 13 cards into battle--one card of each rank seen on traditional playing cards (2, 3, 4, ..., Jack, Queen, King, Ace.) Cards can possess up to 3 skills, based on their rarity, listed along the bottom of each card. Common cards can have 1 skill, uncommons can have 2, and rares can have 3. Skills can affect the game in many ways, but in the most common case they apply bonuses to the rank of the card to which they are attached. The game begins with a dice roll to determine which player will make the first move, followed by both players drawing 3 cards from their deck into their hand. Games consist of 13 rounds, with each round generally consisting of 1 turn for each player. After the first round, the players take turns making the first move of each round. There are 4 places in which cards can be at any moment: deck, hand, graveyard, play area. Each deck is shuffled before play begins. Cards are drawn from the deck into the hand, and cards can only be moved to the play area directly from the hand (except where skills allow.) Hands are only visible to the players to which they belong. When cards are discarded or captured, they're brought into the graveyard. When the deck is depleted, the graveyard is shuffled and returned to the deck. On their turn, players are optionally allowed to discard one card from their hand before moving a single card from their hand to the play area. If they make the opening move of a round, their opponent will then get their turn to play a single card from their hand. Players replenish their hand from their deck immediately upon playing a card, so the hand always contains 3 cards as long as the player has at least 3 cards. The winner of each round is the player whose card is of the highest rank + bonuses, except in cases where the winner is overridden entirely by skills like Slayer. If cards of equal value are played, war is declared, and the round continues with each player taking turns to play cards until someone plays a card higher or lower than its opposition. The winning player then brings all of the cards from the play area into their graveyard, and scores points equal to the sum of the ranks of the captured cards. Basic strategy Generally, and perhaps counter-intuitively for a game about playing high cards, it's best to play the lowest winning or losing card in any situation. That is, favoring low cards as the round opener, giving up the lowest card possible when forced to lose a round, and winning with the lowest card possible. This ensures that as few points as possible are given up to the opponent, and that the highest cards are retained for when they're needed. Higher levels of play are achieved when players begin to track the state of the game in their heads, such as what cards they believe the other player to have in their hand. This allows for informed taking of risks, such as playing a high card as the round opener. The tracking of game state is also necessary for the effective use of skills, some of which interact with cards in the graveyard and deck.